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ment which it can receive, makes the difference | a fortune which a man acquires by well-applied between the claims of legitimate children and industry, or by a series of success in his business, of bastards. But neither reason will in any case and one found in his possession, or received from justify the leaving of bastards to the world with- another. cut provision, education, or profession; or, what is more cruel, without the means of continuing in the situation to which the parent has introduced them; which last is, to leave them to inevitable misery.

A principal part of a parent's duty is still behind, viz: the using of proper precautions and expedients, in order to form and preserve his children's virtue.

To us, who believe that, in one stage or other of our existence, virtue will conduct to happiness, and vice terminate in misery; and who observe withal, that men's virtues and vices are, to a certain degree, produced or affected by the management of their youth, and the situations in which they are placed; to all who attend to these reasons, the obligation to consult a child's virtue will ap

After the first requisite, namely, a provision for the exigencies of his situation, is satisfied, a parent may diminish a child's portion, in order to punish any flagrant crime, or to punish contumacy and want of filial duty in instances not otherwise criminal: for a child who is conscious of bad behaviour, or of contempt of his parent's will and happiness, cannot reasonably expect the same in-pear to differ in nothing from that by which the stances of his munificence.

A child's vices may be of that sort, and his vicious habits so incorrigible, as to afford much the same reason for believing that he will waste er misemploy the fortune put into his power, as if he were mad or idiotish, in which case a parent may treat him as a madman or an idiot; that is, may deem it sufficient to provide for his support, by an annuity equal to his wants and innocent enjoyments, and which he may be restrained from alienating. This seems to be the only case in which a disinherison, nearly absolute, is justifiable.

parent is bound to provide for his maintenance or fortune. The child's interest is concerned in the one means of happiness as well as in the other; and both means are equally, and almost exclusively, in the parent's power.

For this purpose, the first point to be endeav oured after is, to impress upon children the idea of accountableness, that is, to accustom them to look forward to the consequences of their actions in another world; which can only be brought about by the parents visibly acting with a view to these consequences themselves. Parents, to do them justice, are seldom sparing of lessons of virtue and Let not a father hope to excuse an inofficious religion: in admonitions which cost little, and disposition of his fortune, by alleging, that "every which profit less; whilst their example exhibits a man may do what he will with his own." All the continual contradiction of what they teach. A truth which this expression contains is, that this father, for instance, will, with much solemnity discretion is under no control of law; and that and apparent earnestness, warn his son against his will, however capricious, will be valid. This idleness, excess in drinking, debauchery, and exby no means absolves his conscience from the ob- travagance, who himself loiters about all day ligations of a parent, or imports that he may ne- without employment; comes home every night glect, without injustice, the several wants and ex- drunk; is made infamous in his neighbourhood by pectations of his family, in order to gratify a some profligate connexion; and wastes the forwhim or pique, or indulge a preference founded tune which should support, or remain a provision in no reasonable distinction of merit or situation. for his family, in riot, or luxury, or ostentation. Although in his intercourse with his family, and Or he will discourse gravely before his children in the lesser endearments of domestic life, a pa- of the obligation and importance of revealed rerent may not always resist his partiality to a fa-ligion, whilst they see the most frivolous and vourite child (which, however, should be both avoided and concealed, as oftentimes productive of lasting jealousies and discontents;) yet, when he sits down to make his will, these tendernesses must give place to more manly deliberations.

oftentimes feigned excuses detain him from its reasonable and solemn ordinances. Or he will set before them, perhaps, the supreme and tremendous authority of Almighty God; that such a Being ought not to be named, or even thought A father of a family is bound to adjust his upon, without sentiments of profound awe and economy with a view to these demands upon his veneration. This may be the lecture he delivers fortune; and until a sufficiency for these ends is to his family one hour; when the next, if an acquired, or in due time probably will be acquired occasion arise to excite his anger, his mirth or his (for, in human affairs, probability ought to con- surprise, they will hear him treat the name of the tent us,) frugality and exertions of industry are Deity with the most irreverent profanation, and duties. He is also justified in the declining ex- sport with the terms and denunciations of the pensive liberality: for, to take from those who Christian religion, as if they were the language of want, in order to give to those who want, adds some ridiculous and long exploded superstition.. nothing to the stock of public happiness. Thus Now, even a child is not to be imposed upon by far, therefore, and no farther, the plea of "children," such mockery. He sees through the grimace of of large families," "charity begins at home," &c. this counterfeited concern for virtue. He disis an excuse for parsimony, and an answer to covers that his parent is acting a part; and rethose who solicit our bounty. Beyond this point, ceives his admonitions as he would hear the same as the use of riches becomes less, the desire of maxims from the mouth of a player. And when laying up should abate proportionably. The once this opinion has taken possession of the truth is, our children gain not so much as we child's mind, it has a fatal effect upon the parent's imagine, in the chance of this world's happiness, influence in all subjects; even those, in which he or even of its external prosperity, by setting out himself may be sincere and convinced. Whereas in it with large capitals. Of those who have died a silent, but observable, regard to the duties of rerich, a great part began with little. And in religion, in the parent's own behaviour, will take a spect of enjoyment, there is no comparison between sure and gradual hold of the child's disposition,

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much beyond formal reproofs and chidings, which, | a right to such authority, and in support of that being generally prompted by some present provocation, discover more of anger than of principle, and are always received with a temporary alienation and disgust.

A good parent's first care is, to be virtuous himself; a second, to make his virtues as easy and engaging to those about him as their nature will admit. Virtue itself offends, when coupled with forbidding manners. And some virtues may be urged to such excess, or brought forward so unseasonably, as to discourage and repel those who observe and who are acted upon by them, instead of exciting an inclination to imitate and adopt them. Young minds are particularly liable to these unfortunate impressions. For instance, if a father's economy degenerate into a minute and teasing parsimony, it is odds but that the son, who has suffered under it, sets out a sworn enemy to all rules of order and frugality. If a father's piety be morose, rigorous, and tinged with melancholy, perpetually breaking in upon the recreation of his family, and surfeiting them with the language of religion on all occasions, there is danger Test the son carry from home with him a settled prejudice against seriousness and religion, as inconsistent with every plan of a pleasureable life; and turn out, when he mixes with the world, a character of levity or dissoluteness.

Something likewise may be done towards the correcting or improving of those early inclinations which children discover, by disposing them into situations the least dangerous to their particular characters. Thus, I would make choice of a retired life for young persons addicted to licentious pleasures; of private stations for the proud and passionate; of liberal professions, and a town life, for the mercenary and sottish and not, according to the general practice of parents, send dissolute youths into the army; penurious tempers to trade; or make a crafty lad an attorney; or flatter a vain and haughty temper with elevated names, or situations, or callings, to which the fashion of the world has annexed precedency and distinction, but in which his disposition, without at all promoting his success, will serve both to multiply and exasperate his disappointments. In the same way, that is, with a view to the particular frame and tendency of the pupil's character, I would make choice of a public or private education. The reserved, timid, and indolent, will have their faculties called forth, and their nerves invigorated, by a public education. Youths of strong spirits and passions will be safer in a private education. At our public schools, as far as I have observed, more literature is acquired, and more vice; quick parts are cultivated, slow ones are neglected. Under private tuition, a moderate proficiency in juvenile learning is seldom exceeded, but with more certainty attained.

authority to exercise such discipline as may be necessary for these purposes. The law of nature acknowledges no other foundation of a parent's right over his children, besides his duty towards them. (I speak now of such rights as may be enforced by coercion.) This relation confers no property in their persons, or natural dominion over them, as is commonly supposed. Since it is, in general, necessary to determine the destination of children, before they are capable of judging of their own happiness, parents have a right to elect professions for them.

As the mother herself owes obedience to the father, her authority must submit to his. In a competition, therefore, of commands, the father is to be obeyed. In case of the death of either, the authority, as well as duty, of both parents, devolves upon the survivor.

These rights, always following the duty, belong likewise to guardians; and so much of them as is delegated by the parents to guardians, belongs to tutors, school-masters, &c.

From this principle, "that the rights of parents result from their duty," it follows, that parents have no natural right over the lives of their children, as was absurdly allowed to Roman fathers; nor any to exercise unprofitable severities; nor to command the commission of crimes: for these rights can never be wanted for the purpose of a parent's duty.

Nor, for the same reason, have parents any right to sell their children into slavery. Upon which, by the way, we may observe, that the children of slaves, are not, by the law of nature, born slaves: for, as the master's right is derived to him through the parent, it can never be greater than the parent's own.

Hence also it appears, that parents not only pervert, but exceed their just authority, when they consult their own ambition, interest, or prejudice, at the manifest expense of their children's happiness. Of which abuse of parental power, the following are instances: the shutting up of daughters and younger sons in nunneries, and monasteries, in order to preserve entire the estate and dignity of the family; or the using of any arts, either of kindness or unkindness, to induce them to make choice of this way of life themselves; or, in countries where the clergy are prohibited from marriage, putting sons into the church for the same end, who are never likely to do or receive any good in it sufficient to compensate for this sacrifice; the urging of children to marriages from which they are averse, with the view of exalting or enriching the family, or for the sake of connecting estates, parties, or interests; or the opposing of a marriage, in which the child would probably find his happiness, from a motive of pride or avarice, of family hostility, or personal pique.

CHAPTER X.

The Rights of Parents.

THE rights of parents result from their duties. If it be the duty of a parent to educate his children, to form them for a life of usefulness and virtue, to provide for them situations needful for their subsistence, and suited to their circumstances, and to prepare them for those situations; he has

CHAPTER XI.

The Duty of Children."
THE duty of children may be considered,
I. During childhood.

II. After they have attained to manhood, but continue in their father's family.

III. After they have attained to manhood, and have left their father's family.

I. During childhood.

Children must be supposed to have attained to some degree of discretion before they are capable of any duty. There is an interval of eight or nine years between the dawning and the maturity of reason, in which it is necessary to subject the inclination of children to many restraints, and direct their application to many employments, of the tendency and use of which they cannot judge; for which cause, the submission of children during this period must be ready and implicit, with an exception, however, of any manifest crime which may be commanded them.

II. After they have attained to manhood, but continue in their father's family.

If children, when they are grown up, voluntarily continue members of their father's family, they are bound, beside the general duty of gratitude to their parents, to observe such regulations of the family as the father shall appoint; contribute their labour to its support, if required; and confine themselves to such expenses as he shall allow. The obligation would be the same, if they were admitted into any other family, or received support from any other hand.

III. After they have attained to manhood, and have left their father's family.

In this state of the relation, the duty to parents is simply the duty of gratitude; not different in kind, from that which we owe to any other benefactor; in degree, just so much exceeding other obligations, by how much a parent has been a greater benefactor than any other friend. The services and attentions, by which filial gratitude may be testified, can be comprised within no enumeration. It will show itself in compliances with the will of the parents, however contrary to the child's own taste or judgment, provided it be neither criminal, nor totally inconsistent with his happiness; in a constant endeavour to promote their enjoyments, prevent their wishes, and soften their anxieties, in small matters as well as in great; in assisting them in their business; in contributing to their support, ease, or better accommodation, when their circumstances require it; in affording them our company, in preference to more amusing engagements; in waiting upon their sickness or decrepitude; in bearing with the infirmities of their health or temper, with the peevishness and complaints, the unfashionable, negligent, austere manners, and offensive habits, which often attend upon advanced years: for where must old age find indulgence, if it do not meet with it in the piety and partiality of children?

sires constitutes, or the disappointment affects any considerable portion of their happiness, compared with that of their whole life, it is difficult to determine; but there can be no difficulty in pronouncing, that not one half of those attachments, which young people conceive with so much haste and passion, are of this sort. I believe it also to be true, that there are few aversions to a profession, which resolution, perseverance, activity in going about the duty of it, and, above all, despair of changing, will not subdue: yet there are some such. Wherefore, a child who respects his parents' judgment, and is, as he ought to be, tender of their happiness, owes, at least, so much deference to their will, as to try fairly and faithfully, in one case, whether time and absence will not cool an affection which they disapprove; and, in the other, whether a longer continuance in the profession which they have chosen for him may not reconcile him to it. The whole depends upon the experiment being made on the child's part with sincerity, and not merely with a design of compassing his purpose at last, by means of a simulated and temporary compliance. It is the nature of love and hatred, and of all violent affections, to delude the mind with a persuasion that we shall always continue to feel them as we feel them at present; we cannot conceive that they will either change or cease. Experience of similar or greater changes in ourselves, or a habit of giving credit to what our parents, or tutors, or books, teach us, may control this persuasion, otherwise it renders youth very untractable: for they see clearly and truly that it is impossible they should be happy under the circumstances proposed to them, in their present state of mind. After a sincere but ineffectual endeavour, by the child, to accommodate his inclination to his parent's pleasure, he ought not to suffer in his parent's affection, or in his fortunes. The parent, when he has reasonable proof of this should acquiesce; at all events, the child is then at liberty to provide for his own happiness.

Parents have no right to urge their children upon marriages to which they are averse: nor ought, in any shape, to resent the children's disobedience to such commands. This is a different case from opposing a match of inclination, because the child's misery is a much more probable consequence; it being easier to live without a person that we love, than with one whom we hate. Add to this, that compulsion in marriage necessarily leads to prevarication; as the reluctant party promises an affection, which neither exists, nor is exThe most serious contentions between parents pected to take place: and parental, like all human and their children are those commonly which re-authority, ceases at the point where obedience be late to marriage, or to the choice of a profession.

comes criminal.

A parent has, in no case, a right to destroy his In the above-mentioned, and in all contests bechild's happiness. If it be true, therefore, that tween parents and children, it is the parent's duty there exist such personal and exclusive attach- to represent to the child the consequences of his ments between individuals of different sexes, that conduct; and it will be found his best policy to the possession of a particular man or woman in represent them with fidelity. It is usual for pamarriage be really necessary for the child's hap-rents to exaggerate these descriptions beyond propiness; or, if it be true, that an aversion to a par-hability, and by exaggeration to lose all credit with ticular profession may be involuntary and uncon- their children; thus, in a great measure, defeating querable; then it will follow, that parents, where their own end. this is the case, ought not to urge their authority, and that the child is not bound to obey it.

The point is, to discover how far, in any particular instance, this is the case. Whether the fondness of lovers ever continues with such intensity, and so long, that the success of their de

Parents are forbidden to interfere, where a trust is reposed personally in the son; and where, consequently, the son was expected, and by virtue of that expectation is obliged, to pursue his own judgment, and not that of any other: as is the case with judicial magistrates in the execution of

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The duty of children to their parents was thought worthy to be made the subject of one of the Ten Commandments; and, as such, is recognised by Christ, together with the rest of the moral precepts of the Decalogue, in various places of the Gospel.

The same divine Teacher's sentiments concerning the relief of indigent parents, appear sufficiently from that manly and deserved indignation with which he reprehended the wretched casuistry of the Jewish expositors, who, under the name of a tradition, had contrived a method of evading this duty, by converting, or pretending to convert, to the treasury of the temple, so much of their property as their distressed parent might be entitled by their law to demand.

Agreeably to this law of Nature and Christianity, children are, by the law of England, bound to support, as well their immediate parents, as their grandfather and grandmother, or remoter ancestors, who stand in need of support.

Obedience to parents is enjoined by St. Paul to the Ephesians: "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right;" and to the Colossians: "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord."*

By the Jewish law, disobedience to parents was in some extreme cases capital: Deut. xxi. 18.

BOOK IV.

DUTIES TO OURSELVES.

right, provided it were a perfect determinate right, by any extremities which the obstinacy of the aggressor rendered necessary. Of this I doubt; because I doubt whether the general rule be worth sustaining at such an expense; and because, apart from the general consequence of yielding to the attempt, it cannot be contended to be for the augmentation of human happiness, that one man should lose his life, or a limb, rather than another a pennyworth of his property. Nevertheless, perfect rights can only be distinguished by their value; and it is impossible to ascertain the value at which the liberty of using extreme violence begins. The person attacked, must balance, as well as he can, between the general consequence of yielding, and the particular effect of resistance.

However, this right, if it exist in a state of nature, is suspended by the establishment of civil society: because thereby other remedies are provided against attacks upon our property, and because it is necessary to the peace and safety of the community, that the prevention, punishment, and redress of injuries, he adjusted by public laws. Moreover, as the individual is assisted in the recovery of his right, or of a compensation for his right, by the public strength, it is no less equitable than expedient, that he should submit to public arbitration the kind, as well as the measure of the satisfaction which he is to obtain.

There is one case in which all extremities are justifiable; namely, when our life is assaulted, and it becomes necessary for our preservation to kill the assailant. This is evident in a state of nature; unless it can be shown, that we are bound to prefer the aggressor's life to our own, that is to say, to love our enemy better than ourselves, which can never be a debt of justice, nor any where appears to be a duty of charity. Nor is the case altered by our living in civil society; because, by the supposition, the laws of society cannot interpose to protect us, nor, by the nature of the case, compel restitution. This liberty is restrained to cases in which no other probable means of preserving our life remain, as flight, calling for assistTHIS division of the subject is retained merely ance, disarming the adversary, &c. The rule for the sake of method, by which the writer and holds, whether the danger proceed from a volunthe reader are equally assisted. To the subject tary attack, as by an enemy, robber, or assassin; itself it imports nothing; for, the obligation of all or from an involuntary one, as by a madman, or duties being fundamentally the same, it matters person sinking in the water, and dragging us after little under what class or title any of them are him; or where two persons are reduced to a situaconsidered. In strictness, there are few duties or tion in which one or both of them must perish: as crimes which terminate in a man's self; and so in a shipwreck, where two seize upon a plank, far as others are affected by their operation, they which will support only one: although, to say the have been treated of in some article of the pre-truth, these extreme cases, which happen seldom, ceding book. We have reserved, however, to this head, the rights of self-defence; also the consideration of drunkenness and suicide, as offences against that care of our faculties, and preservation of our persons, which we account duties, and call

duties to ourselves.

CHAPTER I.

The Rights of Self-Defence.

IT has been asserted, that in a state of nature we might lawfully defend the most insignificant

Upon which two phrases, "this is right," and, " for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord," being used by St. Paul in a sense perfectly parallel, we may observe, that moral rectitude, and conformity to the Divine will, were in his apprehension the same.

and hardly, when they do happen, admit of moral agency, are scarcely worth mentioning, much less discussing at length.

The instance which approaches the nearest to the preservation of life, and which seems to justify the same extremities, is the defence of chastity.

In all other cases, it appears to me the safest to consider the taking away of life as authorised by the law of the land; and the person who takes it away, as in the situation of a minister or executioner of the law.

In which view, homicide, in England, is justifiable:

1. To prevent the commission of a crime, which, when committed, would be punishable with death. Thus, it is lawful to shoot a highwayman, or one attempting to break into a house by night; but not so if the attempt be made in the day-time;

which particular distinction, by a consent of legislation that is remarkable, obtained also in the Jewish law, as well as in the laws both of Greece and Rome.

2. In necessary endeavours to carry the law into execution, as in suppressing riots, apprehending malefactors, preventing escapes, &c. I do not know that the law holds forth its authority to any cases besides those which fall within one or other of the above descriptions; or, that, after the exception of immediate danger to life or chastity, the destruction of a human being can be innocent without an authority.

The rights of war are not here taken into the

account.

CHAPTER II.
Drunkenness.

DRUNKENNESS is either actual or habitual; just as it is one thing to be drunk, and another to be a drunkard. What we shall deliver upon the subject must principally be understood of a habit of intemperance; although part of the guilt and danger described, may be applicable to casual excesses; and all of it in a certain degree, forasmuch as every habit is only a repetition of single in

stances.

The mischief of drunkenness, from which we are to compute the guilt of it, consists in following the bad effects:

1. It betrays most constitutions either to vagances of anger, or sins of lewdness.

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by his irregularities; and a fourth may possess a constitution fortified against the poison of strong liquors. But if, as we always ought to do, we comprehend within the consequences of our conduct the mischief and tendency of the example, the above circumstances, however fortunate for the individual, will be found to vary the guilt of his intemperance less, probably, than he supposes. The moralist may expostulate with him thus: Although the waste of time and of money be of small importance to you, it may be of the utmost to some one or other whom your society corrupts. Repeated or long-continued excesses, which hurt not your health, may be fatal to your companion. Although you have neither wife or child, nor parent, to lament your absence from home, or expect your return to it with terror: other families, in which husbands and fathers have been invited to share in your ebriety, or encouraged to imitate it, may justly lay their misery or ruin at your door. This will hold good whether the person seduced be seduced immediately by you, or the vice be propagated from you to him through several intermediate examples. All these considerations it is necessary to assemble, to judge truly of a vice which usually meets with milder names and more indulgence than it deserves.

I omit those outrages upon one another, and upon the peace and safety of the neighbourhood, in which drunken revels often end; and also those deleterious and maniacal effects which strong liquors produce upon particular constitutions: because, in general propositions concerning drunkextra-enness, no consequences should be included, but what are constant enough to be generally expected.

2. It disqualifies men for the duties of their station, both by the temporary disorder of their faculties, and at length by a constant incapacity and stupefaction.

3. It is attended with expenses, which can often be ill spared.

4. It is sure to occasion uneasiness to the family of the drunkard.

5. It shortens life.

Drunkenness is repeatedly forbidden by St. Paul: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. "Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness." "Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Ephes. v. 18; Romans xiii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. The same apostle likewise condemns drunkenness, as peculiarly inconsistent with the Christian profession:-" They that be drunken, are drunken in the night: but let us, who are of the day, be sober." I Thess. v. 7, 8. We are not concerned with the argument: the words amount to a prohibition of drunkenness, and the authority is conclusive.

It is a question of some importance, how far drunkenness is an excuse for the crimes which the drunken person commits.

To these consequences of drunkenness must be added the peculiar danger and mischief of the example. Drunkenness is a social festive vice; apt, beyond any vice that can be mentioned, to draw in others by the example. The drinker collects his circle; the circle naturally spreads; of those who are drawn within it, many become the corrupters and centres of sets and circles of their own; every one countenancing, and perhaps emulating the rest, till a whole neighbourhood be infected from the contagion of a single example. In the solution of this question, we will first This account is confirmed by what we often ob- suppose the drunken person to be altogether deserve of drunkenness, that it is a local vice; found prived of moral agency, that is to say, of all reto prevail in certain countries, in certain districts flection and foresight. In this condition, it is eviof a country, or in particular towns, without any dent that he is no more capable of guilt than a reason to be given for the fashion, but that it had madman; although, like him, he may be extremebeen introduced by some popular examples. With ly mischievous. The only guilt with which he is this observation upon the spreading quality of chargeable, was incurred at the time when he vodrunkenness, let us connect a remark which be- luntarily brought himself into this situation. And longs to the several evil effects above recited. The as every man is responsible for the consequences consequences of a vice, like the symptoms of a dis- which he foresaw, or might have foreseen, and for ease, though they be all enumerated in the de- no other, this guilt will be in proportion to the scription, seldom all meet in the same subject. probability of such consequences ensuing. From In the instance under consideration, the age and which principle results the following rule, viz. that temperature of one drunkard may have little to the guilt of any action in a drunken man, bears fear from inflammations of lust or anger; the for- the same proportion to the guilt of the like action tune of a second may not be injured by the ex-in a sober man, that the probability of its being pense; a third may have no family to be disquieted the consequence of drunkenness, bears to absolute

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